Blog:Nanotechnology’s huge potential

Nanotechnologies are increasingly commonplace in the textile industry, but did you know that this market is already worth US$11bn and is set to grow by a factor of ten by 2012? In fact, the textile industry is poised to be the first sector to experience a major impact from nanotechnologies a new report from Cientifica says. ‘Nanotechnologies for the Textiles Market’ calculates the market for textiles making use of nanotechnologies will be worth US$13.6bn by 2007, expanding to US$115bn in six years’ time. Furthermore, the value of nanomaterials supplied to the textile industry will reach US$8.6bn by 2012.

In terms of end-use, nanotechnologies will see the highest growth in non-traditional sectors which include sports/outdoor textiles and technical textiles – although fabrics for clothing textiles will still make up the largest share of the total textile market the researchers believe. So it seems that the backlash against the use of nanoparticles in other industries such as cosmetics is unlikely to impact on textiles, and if the findings of this research pan out over time, the business benefits of these minute particles look like being huge.

The use of nanotechnology in the textile industry is not entirely new; in fact, the market for textiles making use of nanotechnologies is going to be worth an estimated US$115bn in six years’ time. In...

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